How Servant Leadership Influence Me
This week I came across something that happened in my work life, and it made me wonder what it means by being a helpful colleague. A teammate who can create positive results and an encouraging environment for the team
So like what I used to do for all the questions I had, I searched for people and books for answers, and the book by John Maxwell came across my mind again.
In his book, he writes, 'If you help people get what they want, they will help you get what you want." This quote made me realize something, keep asking people to help you and not trying to help them. The taker attitude can't help my co-worker. Even if they are willing to help you for the first and second time, we can't always demand our team to help us.
Therefore, maybe we can adopt another approach. The heart of leadership is based on serving others, making other people's lives better, and ultimate, they will help you.
😇 Servant Leadership
This idea is called servant leadership which emerged 40 years ago from Robert Greenleaf.
I used to think that when I had the authority and title to ask people to do something for me, this would mean advancing my career and be more influential. But knowing this - a true leader is to invert the 'power pyramid' and put others at the top and myself at the bottom.
Even though I don't have my team now, I can still use this concept for my teammate and colleague by listening to their concern about the new system, helping them work and act better at work.
So yeah, it might sound very idealistic in real life, but if we are all willing to serve others, we will be happier in our workplace.
Have a good week ahead,
Tim
❤️ My Favourite Things
🔥 Book Review - 2022 Reading List by Sherman Leung. My friend Sherman had started a reading plan for 2022, read and share 50 books recommended by his intellectual friends (and I am one of them lol). The book list covered consulting, communication, business and product management with detailed summaries. Do have a look at it !!!
📚 Book - The Impossible City By Karen Cheung. I will say this is more of a love letter to Hong Kong. The author writes the book from her perspective, how she lived in Hong Kong during o 1997, 2003 & 2014 total of three periods. They are all the historical milestones for Hong Kong, from the handover SAR to the social movement. During these timestamps, the author also places different social topics in between. Quote from a podcast I listened to recently, "呢本書講唔出啲咩大道理，但係我睇完之後覺得非常之有親切感". I highly recommend every HKer to read this book.
🖥 Virtual Space - Gather Town. Discover this website recently; it is a virtual place for office, social events and gatherings. My team is running our virtual happy hour and team gathering in it. We are playing board games and even virtual kart racing here. It also brings our team closer even though we are working from home.
📹 Documentary - Trust No One: The Hunt For The Crypto King. A company founder died with a strange disease during travel in India, a locked crypto exchange with 250M USD cryptocurrency, a company insider's criminal background, and numerous conspiracies. These sum up the story and Netflix decide to make a documentary about it.
In 2018, when Canada's largest crypto exchange, Quadriga CX, suddenly declined, people withdrew their money during the bitcoin crash. Users start panicking about what was going on, some people even deposit their entire life saving on the exchange, and abruptly everything is locked**. It then turns into** numerous questions and conspiracies. This documentary explains the whole incident.
✍🏻 Quote of the week
“ One common concern people have about disclosure—especially when it involves revealing things that might appear as defects—is that others will see them as weak. We see it differently. It takes fortitude and internal strength to self-disclose”
From Connect by David Bradford and Carole Robin
Resurfaced using Readwise.